Souleymane Kabwe Speaking on Human Rights in Great Lakes Region (Central Africa) to Newport Naval Station OfficialsPosted by MacGoddins Lushimba on Saturday, March 06, 2010

Thursday, February 18, 2010 Souleymane Kabwe (Refugee Rights Advocate/ Co-Founder & Vice President of "Refugee Space Project-RSP") was invited as Guest Speaker by Newport Naval Station (Rhode Island, USA) during the "African American Black History Observance Event" to speak on human rights, the ethnic and political conflits in the Great Lakes Region (Central Africa), and how to end the warehousing of refugees in different camps around the world.

The opening remark of this event was delivered by Capt Joseph P. Voboril, Commanding Officer of the Newport Naval Station. After that there was a prayer and a poem was read. Then the Commanding Officer introduced the Guest Speaker Souleymane Kabwe by reading Kabwe's biography.

"It is for me a great honor to be here in front of men and women in uniforms. Before I start anything, I salute you": said Kabwe.

Newport Naval Station listening carefully to Kabwe

The Great Lakes Region (Central Africa) is made up of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Burundi. Souleymane Kabwe stated that selfishness and external political power play are some of the elements at the core of the past and actual crisis in the region. Most leaders in that part of Africa, as well as in the rest of the continent, are power-centered leaders, i.e. their ultimate goal is to be in power and to remain there for as long as they can even at great risk of their own life. This negative behavior has triggered a lot of resentment in the public and the opposition that they have found that the only way to put an end to this dictatorship is to use force; thus the birth and increase of rebel movements that have turned the Great Lakes Region into a "rifle range" where millions of innocent civilians have lost their lives." Kabwe told the Newport Naval Station Officials.

The 1996 & 1998 "Liberation Wars" in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have caused a lot of Congolese people to flee their country and become refugees in many countries such as Tanzania, Zambia, Angola, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Sudan, Congo Brazaville, the Republic Central Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Malawi and South Africa. These people (Congolese refugees) have been warehoused in most of these countries in refugee camps for more than 10 years with no hope. They are put in difficult conditions with no job opportunities, no study opportunities, no freedom of movement and no refugee status. The majority are just waiting to be repatriated while there is no peace and stability in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The result of these wars is also big number of orphans, widows, systematic pillage of the country's resources, rape of women and the death of more than 6 million Congolese; another that needs to be considered by the International Community and punish all the war criminals.

Kabwe also spoke about the ethnic conflits and massacre in Burundi between Hutus (85% of the population) and Tutsis (the minority) since 1972. The same for Rwanda that brought the result of genocide in 1994 in which more than 800 thousands Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed after President Juvenal Habyarimana's assassination.

About the warehousing of refugees, the majority of host countries in Africa prefer to put refugees in refugee camps with no hope for the future. And life in refugee camps is very difficult. In doing this, the governments get more money from the international community. In short, refugees are considered as business."That's why it takes courage to be a Refugee"; Kabwe told the Newport Naval Station that day. He also mentioned that there is a way to end this violation of refugees' rights by just exercising the three durable solutions for refugees:

1) Voluntary Repatriation: This is the most adopted option by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). This means refugees are sent back to their countries of origin after a tripartite agreement between the host country, UNHCR and the country where refugees come from.

2) Local Integration: This option gives the opportunity to refugees to be integrated in the community within their counytry of asylum. The UNHCR always does his best to talk to the host countries in order to integrate some refugees. But it is very sad to see that most of the African countries don't give these opportunities to refugees due to lack of lands and poverty. They forget that a refugee can contribute a lot to the development of the society.

3) Resettlement: This option is a transfer of refugees to a third country. In some cases the UNHCR uses this option after identifying asyulum seeklers/refugees on individual cases. If a refugee proves to the UNHCR that he/she cannot go back to his/her country of origin because of fear of persecution or other personal reasons and cannot stay in the country of first refuge because of lack of local integration or other personal reasons, the only option for UNHCR is to resettle him/her to a third country where he/she will be given the opportunity to start his/her new life. Resettlement is always a combination if a refugee cannot go back home and cannot remain in the country of first refuge. In conclusion, the Resettlement is the only true durable solution for refugees but it is just an option for a very small number of refugees because the UNHCR and Resettlement countries have some criteria of eligibility. And well-known resettlement countries are the United States of America (USA), Canada, Australia, New Zealand and some European countries such as Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom (UK), Norway, etc.

"I thank the UNHCR and the US government for resettling me and my family in the United States of America (USA) after being warehoused in Osire Refugee Camp, Namibia for 6 years, arrested and jailed twice because of my advocacy. This has been my true durable solution because I proved I could not go back after leaving my country since 1984 because of fear of persecution and could not remain in Namibia because of lack of local integration and my involvement in refugee rights activities." Kabwe told the Newport Naval Station Offiocials.

Kabwe also used the moment to thank the Namibia National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) and his special thank went to its Executive Director, Phil Ya Nangoloh for advocating the refugee rights in the country.

As an ambassador for Refugees, Kabwe revealed that he and some of his friends have already started a project (Refugee Space Project-RSP) or campaign to contribute to end the Warehousing of Refugees around the world with new, practical strategies. This noble task is going to be possible with the help and support of institutions such as the US government, the United Nations, the international community and individual sponsors.

Mac Lushimba Speaking About "Leadership" to Denver University StudentsPosted on Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Mac Lushimba Speaking about 'Leadership' to Denver University Students

Tuesday, February 23, 2010 MacGoddins Lushimba (Founder & President of the Refugee Space Project-RSP) was invited to speak to an audience of almost 125 Denver University students about “Leadership”. The main goal was to give students the opportunity to get a real life perspective on leadership, and show them why community engagement matters, especially in leadership.

A Denver University Student Introducing Mac Lushimba, Speaker of the Day

After going through the UNHCR books and reading the Namibia Refugee Act of 1999 Mac found that much was to be done in Namibia in terms of “Refugee Rights”. He met with some UNHCR authorities and Namibia government authorities, but nothing changed, until the day he had an idea to create a platform that could assemble as many refugees as possible so that some issues could be tackled. That was the beginning of the Association for the Defense of Refugee Rights (ADR). This association played an important role in peacefully rising refugees’ awareness in the field of their rights and obligations.

But, unfortunately, the Namibia government and the UNHCR were not ready to listen to the grievances of refugees. This led ADR to use active methods and reach the local and international communities. That was not a piece of cake. After demonstrating and complaining about the negative treatment refugees were given by the government and the passivity of the UNHCR-Namibia, many ADR members were arrested, jailed and taken to court!!! But with the help of the National Society for Human Rights led by Mr. Phil ya Nangoloh ADR was provided with a lawyer. Everything went well. All the cases were won, and ADR grew in strength, popularity and experience….. until the day change came to Namibia within the UNHCR.

Thus the beginning for durable solutions for refugees: the door to resettlement opened up. But that was not well viewed by the Namibian government authorities in Osire who tried by all means to prevent Mac Lushimba and Souleymane Kabwe to travel to Windhoek for resettlement interviews. It took several days of negotiations between the UNHCR and the government before the Ministry of Home Affairs let go.

In the light of his story Mac Lushimba stipulates that “Leadership”, according to his understanding, should be the sum of certain qualities that must be found in a person in order to guide people and bring better situations in their lives:

(01) Knowledge: A leader needs to know perfectly the field in which he wants to bring change, so that whatever opposition or lies other people can place before him can be easily detected and the snare avoided. Knowledge comes through personal curiosity, through learning from other successful people or circumstances.

(02) Vision: A leader must be a person of wide long visions, i.e. he needs to see solutions where other people see nothing or have tough time to grasp anything. This includes very strong imagination.

(03) Decision: A leader must be a person of decisions, right decisions. Once every parameter shows that the decision we are about to take is for the good of the community, we don’t see any other raison we can change our mind.

(04) Action: If it’s true that a leader can be a dreamer, he must carry his dreams through actions. Because it’s through actions that our dreams can be appreciated or justified. Because it’s actions that give life to our dreams. Without actions our dreams will just be dead dreams!

(05) Compassion: it’s with a heart full of compassion that a leaders’ job can reach the community, because with no compassion many leaders have found themselves serving not the community but themselves or just selfish interests.

After the presentation, Mac Lushimba answered some few questions about the US foreign policy and he also spoke about the difference between an Immigrant and a Refugee. At the end of the presentation Mac Lushimba said that the reletionship between the Democratic Republic of Congo and the USA needs a lot of efforts and improvement in the field of justice, human rights and real democracy.